Alabama Shooting Suspect Amy Bishop's House Searched for Bombs

(March 12) -- Police sent a remote-controlled bomb squad robot into the home of University of Alabama shooting suspect Amy Bishop this afternoon and detonated a suspicious but ultimately harmless pipe, according to local news reports.

Police were searching Bishop's home in Huntsville, Ala., on a warrant for hazardous materials when they found a section of PVC pipe suspected of containing explosives, the reports said.

Neighboring homes were evacuated and the bomb squad called to investigate. A WAFF 48 News Crew reported hearing two "boom" sounds, which apparently were caused by the squad's precautionary destruction of the cylinder. The Huntsville Times said the pipe was not found to contain an explosive device.

Bishop's attorney told reporters that the police left after seizing computers and a video camera from the home.

Amy Bishop in police booking photo released Feb. 13, 2010

Huntsville, Ala., Police Dept. / AP

Amy Bishop, here in a police booking photo released Feb. 13, is in jail awaiting trial in the campus shootings at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

Bishop, a biology professor, is accused of going on a shooting rampage during a Feb. 12 staff meeting. Three people were killed and three others wounded. Bishop is charged with capital murder.

After Bishop's arrest, it was revealed that she had shot and killed her brother in 1986 in Massachusetts. That incident was ruled an accident.

As True/Slant's Michael Roston pointed out, one of Bishop's colleagues received two pipe bombs in the mail in 1994. No one was hurt. Bishop was one of several people questioned by investigators, but she was not charged.

Bishop is in jail awaiting trial in the campus shootings. Her lawyers have indicated they will likely use the insanity defense. She is said not to remember the shooting rampage and asked if she still had a job a week after the incident.

After the shooting, the University of Alabama initially suspended Bishop without pay but then mailed her a letter informing her that her employment had been terminated effective Feb. 12.